The Great Alone

5*
Kristin Hannah really knows how to pull on your heart strings. It takes a lot to make me cry and she definitely had me wiping away some stray tears during this novel. What an intense journey! ( )

A great book about love, forgiveness and surviving. ( )

I found this book incredibly frustrating after how good The Nightingale was and reading Bastard Out of Carolina. Hannah tries to do far too many things in this book and ends up doing none of them well. Her portrayals of abuse are undercut by the fairy tale ending, there is no shortage of throwaway characters and details, and given the agency of the female leads in Nightingale it was unfortunate that in this book the female lead never really does anything.

I wish I had skipped the first 100 pages, read every third page from 100-400, read 400-500 which I legitimately liked, and finally stopped instead of reading 500+. ( )

The Great Alone tell the story of a dysfunctional family trying to make a new start in gifted land in Alaska. They arrive completely unprepared and rely on the kindness of the towns people to make their way. The father, a Vietnam Vet, PTSD sufferer, Alcoholic Abuser and Doomsday believer makes life unbearable for the mom and daughter. There is environmental danger and beauty, a blooming love story and a turn of events.
I was all in until the very end which just tied up too cleanly. ( )

Hmm ... How to be delicate about this book which WAS a bestseller, from a proven best-selling author. My wife LOVED it, and insisted I read it. It's title, THE GREAT ALONE, is a line from the poet, Robert Service, a favorite of my maternal grandfather. And there's plenty in here about Alaska and its frontier roughness, even in the 1970s, which is when most of the story is set. It's a coming of age story, of young Leni Allbright, only child in a highly dysfunctional family. Her dad, Ernt, is a Vietnam veteran and former POW, suffering from PTSD. But I think most readers will agree that his wartime trauma does NOT excuse his beating and abusing his wife and daughter. Nope, he is just an abusive, jealous prick, who cant hold a job or get along with anybody - the obvious villain here. His wife, Cora, clings to the idea that he really loves her, and he didn't MEAN to beat the living crap out of her. It was the war, and she believes him when he says how sorry he is and he'll never do it again. So okay, she's trapped, and an enabler. But for nearly TWENTY YEARS? And so is Leni trapped. So that's basically the story here, set against a small Alaskan bush town that's trying to catch up with the 20th century. Ernt, a stubborn survivalist, is pitted against Tom Walker, a wealthy businessman, who is a much better man. Leni, of course, falls in love with Walker's son, etc., etc., etc. It's extremely easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys here. But it's actually a pretty compelling story for at least two-thirds of the book. After that it collapses into unbelievable - and violent - improbability, and, finally, romantic, ridiculous, happily-ever-after nonsense. But I finished it, wincing all the way. I am happy that my wife loved it, and can see why most women love Hannah's books, but I think this one will suffice for me.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )